Endless Trail, Endless Debt
by litlgaurdian
Summary: *Full Summary Inside not enough letters here * What if you had the option to have one thing you wanted more than anything in the world? What is the price you would pay? How far will you go if you cannot back out? with only 9 months to live who will?
1. Chapter 1

**((A/N)) This is the DIRECT result of Obsession. I really wish people would review some of my other stories so I'd stay in that mode a little longer to keep them going. Like always, I'll finish them, but it will be PAINFULLY slow. Sorry about that.

So here's a new one *YAY* this one kind of crossoverishy (yes it's a word as of now). I watched the Birds of Prey series and I had already been addicted to the comics before so this was just more fun for me. And then like a kid I went back to third grade and got hooked on one of those kidsy Oregon Trail games. So two worlds collide and I get a story out of it. There is only one teesy edit to the ending of the season finale, but that has a purpose and you'll get it later. Oh, and this is kinda done in the style of one of those "chose your own adventure" stories so there's more than one ending and stuff that goes along with it. But I'm still not writing in first or second person. Curse the very computer of which I use to write such a point of view.

Not that this chapter is VERY short and isn't supposed to make a lot of since . . . I just want to see what people think about it so send me as many PMs about this as possible and review.

**Copyright: I don't own Birds of Prey, the comics or the Tv show no matter how much I wish I did. Nor do I own Oregon Trail and all the things that come with it. The only other thing is that I did borrow the term 'sun-drowned place' from the warriors series.

**Summary: Several months have past since the clocktower was restored to its original glory, the Birds of Prey returned to their duty of protecting the city, and the infamous Dr. Quinzell was defeated. Perhaps the most joyous moment of all came hours after Quinzell's defeat as Gibson tracked the scent of blood finding the body of Wade Baxton, weak but still alive. These months have been happy ones where crime is considerably reduced and love blossoms.

But all lovely things must come to a close.

Something has happened, something unexplainable and strange. The Birds of Prey have disappeared, completely left New Gotham and find themselves in a place, and time, they should not belong in: Independence, Missouri, April 1, 1848. Their only hope of returning home is to reach the sun-drowned place, a place called Oregon City hundreds upon hundreds of miles away, and reach it alive. But this Journey is not made to be easy. Some of the Birds of Prey may never live long enough to see home again. It all depends on the choices Helena Kyle makes that determines whether her friends shall live or die.

enough rambling . . . ON WITH THE SHOW!

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Endless Trail, Endless Debt

Chapter 1

prolog

Her eyes opened, yet there was nothing to see. This world was just as dark as the one inside her mind, if not a bit darker. She was so used to the blaring lights of the city, the constant noise that continued into the night. But here all was still, all was silent, and as much as she hated to admit it: This silence brought a fear into her heart that stabbed her soul.

_Where was she?_

The question burned in her mind as she felt into the darkness around her. There was nothing to grab to drag herself to her feet, nor anything below her to support her if she could. She was trapped, waiting in the path of some beast that lived in such total and complete darkness.

_There!_ A sound! It was faint, but there. A soft, scraping sound as if the scales of some massive snake were slinking around in some dark cave that was to be her grave.

"Who are you?" She called making herself sound brave as she did. She could show no fear when dealing with an enemy she did not know. They saw it as just another weakness of hers.

"You do not remember me, dear one?" Her captor said in a whispering voice. Could it be possible that he actually was a snake? No, how could that be? She shook her head then told him realizing there was no way he could have seen the motion in darkness this complete. "We spoke a while back, you and I. We spoke of wonderful things, wonderful times, that had all become a part of the past."

"I never . . . "Her voice trailed off as she thought. The voice did sound so painfully familiar. Perhaps she had heard it before, somewhere . . .

"Ah, so you do remember," The voice was in front of her now and she imagined the serpents head before her. "But do you remember our agreement?"

"I never agreed to-"

"You did, you did my little birdie." He laughed, "Oh, don't you remember. I would give you everything you desired! Oh do remember, it was such fun."

"What could I have wanted from something like you? I don't even know who, or what, you are?"

"And who are you to judge based on 'what' a person is? Hmm?"

"Fine then. Supposed I did agree. What did I give you?"

"A game!" He laughed, hissing as he did. "A most glorious game. Imagine! Who will be the ones who live? Who die?"

"How can you kill me?"

"Oh, it's not your life I want, though you might loose that in this game if your not careful," He stopped to laugh again. "You see, I'm much kinder than my brother. You might remember him from your studies of the ancient Norsemen. His name was Jörmungandr."

"The serpent of Norse mythology that was said to circle the world biting his tail." She told him, "I've heard of him, but like all mythology he isn't real."

"What was it your friend said? Ah yes, urban legends are just the truth a few generations later. While he isn't out and about these days I am free to make people's dreams come true."

"With a catch of course." She added for him and he laughed.

"A catch she says! It's only a game. My brother would demand the lives of your loved ones. I only ask for a game."

"Enough with the games." She looked away from the voice. "Just tell me what you want."

"I gave you nine months of peaceful bliss, my little nightbird. All I ask is nine months in return. I will be kind and you will not freeze like so many do in the early year. March should be a gracious enough time. You use those nine months well and reach the sun-drowned place before the start of the tenth month, January first in this case, and I will return you home. Fail and you will live the remainder of your life away from the world you are used to."

"What world are we talking about?"

"You'll see for yourself, won't you?" He laughed madly, "You'll see for yourself."

The black world became bright as sunlight flooded her senses and she lifted her weary head. Instantly the world grew cold as she realized not only was she alone, but lying in a field covered with a thin blanket of snow.

Thank god there was a city not to far away.

_Continue to the next chapter . . . -_

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(A/N) Review as you know. This one shouldn't be so long between updates once it starts rolling thanks to it's build your own adventure nature. But reviews will make a tremendous amount of difference. I know the series isn't the most popular thing nowadays and it probably won't get too much traffic to begin with, that just means there'll be less reviews if you're not the one to do it. Don't just hope someone else will do it for you


	2. Chapter 2

((A/N)) The introduction chapters will be kinda linked for a while. Not too many adventure choosing for a little while.

As always, a thank you to my first reviewer, THEHUNTRESS06. and to answer your question in the review, yes Reece will be in this and yes there will be some fluff thrown in every now and then, depending on what path you take. Personally I don't like all the femslash parings, I don't see why they keep getting put up. I just now managed to get obsessed with the series so I don't know too many of the stories out there. Maybe with this one you won't miss it as much.

Review! I can't explain how much it means.

Chapter 2

Everything was wrong. This world was different.

The world shone bright in a sky not cluttered by massive buildings of cold steel and glass. Instead it's golden radiance stretched down to the far away earth and reflected its brilliance on the snow that coated the land. Thank god it wasn't deep, maybe an inch or so with blades of grass poking out wherever they could.

All this she could handle. So she was in a strange place where is snowed in March. Not that big of a deal. The problem was _how_ it happened. She didn't remember being here before, nor did she remember being alone. What _had _she been doing? There was no way she had gotten drunk enough to end up here without knowing why.

There had been a little party, nothing big or fancy just a little party. Barbara and Helena had worked hard to get the clocktower into shape and she had actually forced the Oracle to get out and buy some food for once in her life. There was cake and candles and ice cream and chips and everything else a normal birthday party would have, except that it was in a hidden vigilante lair and there was only one candle on the cake.

The party had been for Dinah, she had been with them for a year now. Usually heroes as young as her (not to mention as emotionally unstable) don't make it this far. They leave or loose their temper or just fail and are killed. The fact that a seventeen year old had gone through as much as she did proved a lot. Even Helena had to pay her own share of respect for the Black Canary's daughter.

They had all been there: Barbara and Wade, Jessie and Helena, and last there was Alfred. Babs said she had wanted to bring in some friends of hers, but Helena fought the idea down. Both knew if someone was there that was one of Oracle's friends but not Dinah's then they were there because they knew her mother, the Black Canary. Not only did Dinah _not_ need some guys hanging around that didn't know her she didn't need to be reminded that her mother was killed in front of her a little over nine months ago.

Everything went well, all of them were happy and enjoying themselves and embarrassing Dinah with all her mistakes from her early weeks, but of course those happy times never last, do they?

What first called them away was the Delphi system. It kept flashing and sirens were going off saying something was breeching the perimeter, but every time someone went to check nothing was there, not even on the cameras. Then there was the laughing. It was almost like the sound out of a movie, loud and echoing off the tower walls. The world went dark and there was that voice that whispered to her, saying things she couldn't understand. Then, when she finally woke up, she was here.

Alone, cold, and in the middle of no where. Well, if she was out here the others would have to be too.

"Dinah!" She called out and her voice just echoed as she scanned the area. The snow seemed to stretch on for miles in every direction. Only a little cluster of buildings caught her attention. They were far away, but she could see the smoke billowing from various chimneys so she figured she could reach it easy enough. Getting there should be an easy first step to finding the others. If they were out there too they'd probably go towards it.

She stood and brushed herself off, grumbling at how some of the snow had melted into her pants leaving almost half of one leg darker than the rest of her. That and a small collection of grass, leaves, and snow had built up in her hair. Of course she took a moment to brush most of it out. She wasn't some kind of animal.

She walked towards the smoke, not wanting to tire herself out just yet. She wasn't sure why she was here or what she was up against. But words couldn't describe how much she hated it. The thing didn't seem to be getting any closer no matter how long she walked. Seconds and minutes blurred together and then minutes and hours. And she still didn't seem any closer. But in reality the little mass of buildings was much closer than when she started. Only by looking behind her and seeing the long trail of footprints in the snow did she realize just how far she had come. As the time passed the little town began to become more visible and a little bit of happiness perked inside her only to be forced down. This little place was nothing like anything she had ever been in.

They were small, almost none of them reaching the third story, and all of them made of wood or brick. Most of the wooden buildings were painted white. There were several dirt paths that traveled in and out of the city, but not one of them was paved. And through every house a small stream of smoke flowed freely as if none of them were heated by anything other than flame.

"Helena!" The voice startled her, but it was good to hear.

"Dinah! You're ok!" The younger vigilante was alive, but tired looking, her hair somehow still perfectly straight even though her limbs hung at her sides. "or are you?"

"Just tired. I'll be fine." She answered quickly. As if she should expect any other answer. Ever since her first day living with the Birds of Prey she's been out to prove herself. "Did you see any of the others?"

"No. Just that little village or whatever." Helena answered, "Figured they would all go there if they were nearby."

"Yeah." It was nice when Dinah actually agreed with her instead of fighting. But neither of them knew where they were anyway so it's not like one could be more right than the other.

"Aren't you cold?" Helena asked looking at her friend. She still had on the little short skirt she had worn to the party.

"Freezing." She shuddered, "There's probably some real clothes in there."

The two walked on, both scanning the horizon on all sides hoping for anyone they knew. It wasn't until they were close enough for Helena's sharp metahuman senses to see the individual bricks on the buildings that they stopped to pick up the third member of the group.

Jessie Reece had been knocked out as well and was still lying on his side in the snow. Helena sat beside him and shook his shoulder gently to wake him while Dinah picked a place to watch. When at first he did not move Helena felt panic forming in her chest. _What if he wasn't going to wake up?_ But a thought like that had to be forced away. Given a little time she did manage to make some progress.

"Did you manage to bang your head there?" she asked him just happy he was alive.

"Where are we?"

"Wish we knew." She helped him sit up but wasn't about to let him stand. Didn't want to overload his brain or anything. "One minute we're partying, the next stranded in the middle of nowhere. This little town's the only thing we could see."

"but that thing I saw just a minute ago. What was that?"

"What thing?" This time Dinah asked. Both knew this was her field.

"I don't know, I didn't really _see_ it, it was just kinda there. You know?"

"Yeah. I heard it too. Just before it woke up, but I don't remember much." Dinah added. "Something about a game."

"Mine talked about a sun-drowned place." Helena continued. "Whatever it was it was just a dream. It's not like it means anything."

"If all three of us are having the same dream?" And back to the disagreeing.

"Look, lets just find Barbara, ok? Being that I haven't seen a single car since we've been here I'm guessing her wheelchair either isn't here or doesn't work."

"She's got that nerve thingy, doesn't she?" Reece asked finally standing. Helena still stayed close, holding his hand and watching his every move.

"Not really. It was damaged right after Dr. Quinzell went down. The thing nearly killed her. Even if she had it with her I'm not about to let her use it."

When they reached the town not only were they convinced that they were somewhere away from home, but they were somewhen else as well. The people walked in clothes she had only seen in old movies about the eighteen hundreds. The ones that were rich enough to have cars didn't, but sat in wagons pulled by horses and oxen. One kid was riding barefoot on a pig. The roads were all dirt and most people just walked in the middle of them as if they weren't worried about getting hit or anything. The buildings were all close together, like they should be in a city, but they were still so small. The biggest of them all was a stable that she could already hear the donkeys and horses from.

"Ok, so what dream did we fall in?" Reece said looking around as they walked through the streets. As clear as the confusion on his face was he walked confidently through the town as though nothing was wrong. Helena and Dinah stayed beside him, both reading the signs to try to find out anything about the place. Most of them looked like family run stores, not corporate owned businesses and not a single fast food place.

"Helena! Dinah! Reece! You're all alive!" Both girls ran at the sound of the Oracle's far too familiar voice. Wade was with her and, thanks to the absence of her chair, was carrying her in his arms even though he was struggling to do so. "What happened to you guys?"

"Well we were having cake at my party," Dinah recounted again, "then we all heard some thing tell us different things in a dream even though we _somehow_ know it's the same person. And we're in the middle of a revolutionary war reenactment."

"Dinah, the revolutionary war was in 1775." Their mentor told them, "If it's going to be any war reenactment it's going to be the civil war since that's 1861, but even that's a little off."

"And how would you know where we are?" Of course the all seeing Oracle would know.

"I read the paper." She pointed to a two-story, red bricked building with white windows. I the balcony on the second floor a blue and white sign hung. "INDEPENDENCE MESSANGER" it said. In the window the front page of that morning's paper was hung so the world could see its headline.

"March 1, 1848," It read, "Former President John Quincy Adams Dies"

(A/N) Lovely, lovely, lovely reviews.


	3. Chapter 3

(A/N) one review for 1, then two for chap. 2. Think we can make at least 3 this time? Special thanks to THEHUNTRESS06 for reviewing BOTH chapters! Keep 'em coming. I do feel real stupid though since one of my reviews said ppms and I have no idea what that means. Oh well.

Still getting out of town so still no path choosing until probably the next one. The big things to chose for are going to be hills, rivers, and illnesses. Have fun anyway.

Chapter 3

"How the _hell_ did we end up in the 19th century?" Helena demanded.

"It doesn't matter how we got here," Barbara pointed out as Wade lowered her to the ground to let her lean against the wall of the Independence Messenger, "The question is what do we do now?"

For a little while all was silent. No one could even think of an answer. Dinah continued to look back to the snow covered road where the people carried on with their lives, some returning her confused gaze. Every now and then it would flick to a boy who was leaning against the same building as them with his black hat over his eyes.

"If we don't know how we got here then how can we figure that out?" Reece asked.

"What about the snake?" It was Wade who brought it up, "You said you all had a dream about it and so did we. If that's the case it _must _have something to do with why we're here."

"That's what I said, but _somebody_ didn't want to listen to me." The younger heroine nudged her.

"Sorry for trying to make sense for once."

"We're heroes," the paraplegic had to remind them, like she always did, "nothing ever makes sense. So what did the snake tell you all?"

"What, it didn't say anything to you?" The good detective asked and squatted beside her.

"If it did I don't remember a word." She replied regretfully shaking her head, "Wade was the one to first tell me about it after he found me. At first I thought it was stupid but now, I'm not sure. So what did it say?"

"Everyone heard something different." The Huntress told her, "Dinah says he said something about a game and mine about a sun-drowned place."

"The dream I had said we had nine months of peace to give way to nine months of pain." Jessie added.

"So this talking snake is giving us nine months to reach the sun-drowned place and he's watching us because he thinks its fun." Barbara sighed. "So how do we know where the sun drowns?"

At the sound of the question the boy who was apparently sleeping against the wall sat up, pushing up the rim his hat up with his thumb. With the wide rim of his hat out of the way his face revealed his relatively young age. The long black pants, plaid red and black shirt that buttoned from his waist to his collar, and the animal skinned vest had thrown them off before. But now they saw just how soft his face was and the way his green eyes glittered with childish delight. They flicked to Dinah's bare legs for only a moment as a smile crossed him.

"If it's a drownin' sun you want," he said with a voice heavy with his Irish accent. "Then it's the Willamette Valley you're lookin' for. It's not right on the waters, but it's close enough. Oregon City's right around there, pretty little city. It's the closest you'll get to seein' a drownin' sun."

Helena's senses sharpened. She didn't know this guy, yet he jumped right into their conversation like he was their best friend. Not to mention the way he looked at Dinah made her less than uncomfortable.

"Oregon City's got to be real far from here." Barbara told him, "That can't be where we need to be."

"I'm just sayin' it's a good place to start looking."

"I really don't think we're in any position to argue," Reece pointed out as he stood and went to stand beside the boy. "You know anything about getting there?"

"Yeah. It's plenty far, few thousand miles. I went the trail twice. Went with a few friends and came back to bring back my family. I still have the scars to prove it too."

"You think we can make it in nine months?"

"Puttin' a time on the trail?" He thought for a moment, "Can't say you'd want to do that. The Oregon Trail's dangerous enough with snakes and storms. Why would you want to do that?"

Reece opened his mouth to answer, but Helena spoke first. Lying was never something he was all that good at and they couldn't take chances. "Friend of ours made a bet," She lied easily, "There's a few hundred dollars on the line saying we can't make it."

"Nice money." He nodded. "Well, if you are thinking about going there's no way you can do it alone. No one travels the trail alone. At least you're in luck, there's plenty of wagon trains all ready to head out. You can always hook up with one of them if you have the supplies."

"We really don't have anything right now." Barbara admitted, "but we'll take care of that before long. You've been a great help, um . . . " She trailed off and he finished.

"Connal Burke," he answered with a nod and a pleasant little smile. "My family's off somewhere getting our wagon train ready."

"Then I'm sure they'll be needing you." Barbara told him. With another nod and smile, this one aimed for Dinah, he left. The blond watched him a little ways longer before he turned a corner and disappeared, just long enough for Helena to notice.

"So then we know where we're going. When do we leave?"

"We can't go there." Wade was the one who answered, "We'd never be able to make it. Like he said. It's thousands of miles and we have only nine months _and_ we're not entirely sure that's where we need to go. What some random kid shows up and tells us one little thing and we automatically believe him."

"I think we should at least give him a chance." Dinah told him as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"Of course you would say that," Helena teased.

"But it is our only option right now." Reece told him. "It's not like we have any other leads. Besides, what he says makes since in a way. The sun _does_ drown in the Pacific ocean every night."

"But that could mean _anywhere _on the west coast."

"Then if we have time we'll do some walking after we get there, but first we need to get there. Now, what do we need to do."

Almost out of instinct every one of them looked to Barbara. Surly the great, all-seeing Oracle knew what to do. This time she only shook her head as if defeated. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? You always know."

"Well this time I don't." There wasn't anger in her voice. It was more of some kind of regret. "I don't know this place Helena. I don't know anything."

"Yes you do, you're an English lit. teacher."

"That doesn't make me know the place."

"Wait," This time it was Dinah who cut in, "You told me that English and history walked side by side. That the books of the time period reflect the age they were written in."

"Well yeah, but-"

"So you're saying you've _never _read a book on the Oregon trail?"

"Not one that wasn't sugar coated."

"Sugar coated's good enough. What do we do?"

She sighed knowing she had been beaten by the girls she trained. "We'll need to gather up as much supplies as we can, get a wagon and a team of oxen and start out as fast as possible. Also, it'd probably be best for us to hook up with another wagon train already headed that direction. No one who's anyone travels the trail alone unless their runaways or crooks."

"So how do we know what to buy?"

"The usual. Food, clothes, spare parts for the wagon, animals, medicine, some tools, and anything else we might need. It'd probably be best for us to see if they can offer a basic supply package for us to get us a head start. But we should start with a wagon and animals first. Any cash we have needs to be used. Thanks to inflation over the years we should have plenty."

They all dug through their wallets and pockets to get to all the money they had. The unusually long night's sweep that Helena and Dinah made to let the others get the tower ready for the celebration had proved to be extremely helpful. Both the girls decided they had gotten the money from crooks who would be using it for their own sick gain anyway. At least they were putting it to good use. Barbara had nothing but a small gift she was going to make to Dinah, nothing more than twenty dollars. Wade practically had his pockets lined with dollar bills he claimed was cab faire. Reece had a bunch he used to buy ammunition since the NGPD didn't do it for him and he didn't want someone following his credit cards saying he bought too much firepower. At least this way his name was never traced. It was only after everyone put it all together that Wade finally gave them a massive chunk of money he had been saving for a while. None of them needed to ask who it was for. All together it had given them $1,900. Barbara quickly put it to use sending Reece to find a wagon merchant and buy the biggest one they had.

"Now we work with what we know since obviously being able to run the Delphi system doesn't get us anywhere here."

"I got pretty good at tracking over the years. Maybe that'll help us find food if we need to hunt or something."

"I knew there was a reason you called yourself Huntress." Reece said coming back with the wagon. "They did have one of those basic packages things. Went ahead and bought it. Everything's inside it right now. What are we doing now?"

"Conestoga," Barbara identified it immediately, "Good choice. But we might need another later. We need to know things we're good at that can help us while we're out there."

"We'll I'm useless. Spent too much time in the twenty-first century. I did live on the water for a while as a kid since my mom left the city so I know my way around a river. Think we'll be crossing any?"

"Definitely. What else?"

"What about all that tinkering you do with your toys?"

"Well yeah, but that's all tech stuff."

"But you'll be better at fixing a broken wheel than the rest of us."

"I suppose so." She sighed "What about you Wade?"

"I have a decent amount of medical knowledge since I went to college majoring in medicine a few years."

"And you didn't think to tell us this why?"

He only shrugged.

"Great, now all we need to do is decide what supplies to get. We'll separate and buy all that we need, then meet back here. That ok."

"Sounds like a plan."

_Continue to the next chapter _

(A/N) I kinda forgot that continue thing last chapter, but don't think it's gone. On the next one there should be some trail choosing so there might be some trickiness on my part and some waiting on yours. so there's the third part. The next is up to you with your little reviews. Not sure where I'm going with Connal. That's kinda for you do decide isn't it? Sort of anyway.


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